New Twist On Old SEC Enforcement Tool: Deferred Prosecution Agreements for Individuals

The SEC announced that it entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with an individual, a first for the agency.

Enforcement officials often use DPAs to encourage targets to come forward with information about illegal activities and to cooperate with investigations.  The agency agrees not to prosecute, and the target agrees to behave.

In this case, the deferree, a hedge fund administrator, spilled the beans about his boss regarding misuse of about $1.5 million and lying to investors about the fund’s performance.  The DPA discusses overstatements of fund returns and discrepancies in the net asset value, or NAV, used for internal and external purposes.

The SEC froze the fund’s and the boss’ assets and is preparing to distribute about $6 million to injured investors.